Baker’s Best Christmas Cookies
| December 20, 2015 | Desserts
These wonderful Holiday Cookies come from some of the best baker’s on the internet.
The first is a Red Velvet Cream Cheese Thumbprint Cookie. They are easy to make and the colors are great for Christmas, Valentines Day or with a few blue sprinkles you are also set for the 4th of July. And don’t you just love the look of that frosting on the Vanilla Bean Sugar Cookies! I also like the clever use of a cookie cutter to help decorate the tops. And how about the Red Velvet Snowman Cookies…wow! Super simple recipe and a real eye catcher too.
Have fun baking and sharing these delightfully delicious cookies with family and friends.
Red Velvet Cream Cheese Thumbprint Cookies
Serves: makes 36 cookies
Ingredients
For the cookies
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
- ½ cup packed brown sugar
- 2 large eggs, separated
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 4 teaspoons red liquid food coloring
- 2 teaspoons natural unsweetened cocoa powder
- ½ cup granulated sugar
For the filling
- 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
- ¼ cup sugar
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- To make the cookies: Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.
- Beat the butter, brown sugar, and 1 egg yolk (reserve the other yolk for the filling) in a large bowl with and electric mixer until fluffy. Beat in the vanilla. Add the flour, food coloring, and cocoa and mix until a soft dough forms. Roll the dough into 36 balls.
- Place the egg whites in a shallow bowl and beat them lightly with a fork. Place the granulated sugar in a separate shallow bowl. Roll each dough ball in the egg whites and then in the sugar. Place the balls 2 inches apart on an ungreased baking sheets. Make an indentation in the top of each cookie with your thumb.
- To make the filling: Beat the cream cheese, sugar, the reserved egg yolk, salt, and vanilla in a bowl with an electric mixer until smooth.
- Bake the cookies for 10 minutes. Removed them from the oven and use the handle of a wooden spoon to deepen the indentation (be careful not to break them.) Fill each cookie with about 1 teaspoon of the filling, then return the cookies to the oven and bake until the cookies and fillings are set, about 12 minutes more. Cool for 2 minutes on the baking sheets, then transfer to a rack to cool completely. Store the cookies in the refrigerator. Allow the cookies to come to room temperature before serving.
After the cookies have finished baking, use a knife to gently crack off the edges of the sugared egg white that baked off of the cookie to reveal a pretty, lightly crunchy round edge.
Please see page two for Vanilla Bean Christmas Cookies
